How to Cram a 90 Minute Drive into 5 Hours - Part 2

After leaving the t-shirt shop for the second time, Grandma Trudy needed to Fed Ex the documents that she had just had notarized. She was pretty sure that you could mail them from a U.S post office so Ross stopped at the next one and ran in to try to send them off. Unfortunately, it turns out that the post office really won't accept Fed Ex packages. 📬

We were still about 30 miles from Key Largo, but it Sweet Pea needed a rest stop and it was time for dinner. We spotted a Pierre's, a restaurant that Brian had recommended, so we pulled into the parking lot.




Sweet Pea and I hustled to the bathroom while Grandma Trudy and Ross headed to the hostess desk. Well, Pierre's turned out to be a little finer dining establishment than we were looking for so we ended up next door at The Beach Club.




We ordered several small plates to split. The calamari was much better than what we had gotten from Olive Garden a few days before. It was some of the most tender calamari that I have had. The breading was crispy and the marinara sauce was very tasty.



We also had an order of steak tacos. They had a good flavor but the beef was really tough, which made them hard to eat and near impossible to share.



Grandma Trudy liked the watermelon and feta salad so much that she ordered another one. I thought it would have been perfect if only the watermelon had been in season.



Look, they had fried Yucca! It came with a spicy aioli sauce. The yucca was not quite as good as at Mason de Pepe on Key West.



For dessert we split a key lime pie, chocolate gelato and creme brûlée. The key lime pie and gelato were unremarkable, but the creme brûlée was the best I've had in years. The custard was creamy thick and perfectly smooth with an excellent vanilla flavor.

After dinner, we rocked it out to
Kokomo by the Beach Boys as we drove out of Key Largo.




It was past her bedtime, so Sweet Pea was starting to fade, but we had one more stop to make before heading to our hotel in Miami. We had to get Grandma Trudy's phone that she had left at The Olive Garden on our way down. Thank goodness the phone retrieval went smoothly and it was only another half an hour drive to the hotel.

We finally made it to the Hampton Inn in Miami. Check in was fast, although there was a bit of confusion when Grandma Trudy tried to get check-in girl to put her legal documents (which where in a Fed Ex envelope) into the hotel's regular outgoing mail. 📬

Ross had to drive to the airport to return the rental car and then catch the shuttle back to the hotel. He got a little lost in the airport and got to the bus stop just as his shuttle was pulling away.

Meanwhile I was trying to get Sweet Pea to sleep. The four of us were sharing a room so Grandma Trudy and I were tromping sound the room trying to get ready for bed and set up to leave tomorrow. Even though she was exhausted, Sweet Pea was having a lot trouble sleeping with all the lights on, so I let her use my eye mask. Such a cutie!



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